Grand Prize Winner 2025 National Gingerbread House Champion
In November 2025, Mary Hulsman won Grand Prize at the National Gingerbread House Competition, the largest event of its kind in the country. Here's her piece that won, and what it takes to get there.
The Olympics of Gingerbread
Every November, the historic Omni Grove Park Inn in Asheville hosts the National Gingerbread House Competition. What began in 1992 as a handful of houses built by locals now draws pastry professionals and devoted hobbyists from across the country, with coverage on Good Morning America, the TODAY Show, Food Network, and the Travel Channel.
The rules are unforgiving: every entry must be 75% gingerbread and 100% edible — no wire armatures, no foam, no shortcuts. Judges score appearance, originality, creativity, difficulty, precision, and theme consistency across four brackets — Adult, Teen, Youth, and Child — for a share of more than $40,000 in prizes.
The 2025 competition returned after Hurricane Helene forced the previous year's cancellation, and set a record: 235 entries from 25 states.
The Tiny Gnome Builders
Mary's winning piece took [X] hours across two years. She had begun an earlier version before the storm, scrapped it, and rebuilt from scratch when the competition was announced. Her village of five topsy-turvy cottages — shingled roofs, curling ivy, gnomes poring over blueprints — was rendered down to the last detail. Every element is edible. The Grand Prize piece spends the following year on a rotating display at the Inn, seen by some 20,000 holiday visitors.
Credentials:
2025 — Grand Champion, National Gingerbread House Competition
2022 — Winner, Food Network's Gingerbread Showdown, Season 2
2021 — Top 10, National Gingerbread House Competition
The same hands that won nationals are available for your next celebration.
“Fastidious perfection!”
Credentials:
Go on, give your guests Grand Champion treats!
Winner of FoodNetwork’s Gingerbread Showdown
See Mary’s FoodNetwork Win!
Mary runs her kitchen out of Concord, North Carolina. Mary delighted customers in Illinois with her cookies for 5 years as the sole baker of My Mom’s Homemade Cookies.
After too many years in full time accounting work, she is firing up her kitchen again!
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